Review: A Somewhat Disenchanting Three Days on Enchantment Feb. 12-15

[jpm1973]

 

We made our way to the ship and where we’d join up with the gangway in some pretty rough waters. I was definitely a bit concerned how this was all going to shake out, and it didn’t take long for them to give up and pull the tender away for another try. I was hoping the second time would be better but alas not, it was just too rough with the wind churning up the water, made worse by the ship’s position. At this point they pulled away and told us that the crew was going to pull up the anchors and reposition the ship in relation to the wind. Here's the stern anchor coming up:

 

 

So we just sort of floated around for 30 minutes while they pulled up anchor and slowly turned Enchantment around. We were hitting some really rocky waters now, and one passenger stumbled up toward the front and started trying to remove the lid on the garbage can. I’m sure he needed somewhere to lose his Blackbeard’s lunch, but the lid must have been secured on because even with help from someone else it wasn’t moving. Thankfully a crew member came up with a little white bag and helped him to the back of the tender.

 

(As an aside once we were back on board the ship much later we ran into my high school friend who was also on this tender, just seated in the back so we hadn’t seen her. Apparently the guy we saw go for the garbage can was just one of many passengers who were getting sick at the back of the tender. I’m glad we were up front!)

 

It was also about now that a passenger seated next to us said that her friends still on the island were being told to pack up and head to the tenders. I guess they weren’t wanting to wait around to get everyone back on board considering how conditions had deteriorated.

 

On our first two tries they had us on the port side of the ship but on our next try they were going to the starboard side. We never even made it close enough before they realized that wasn’t going to work out and brought us back around to the port side. Unfortunately the crew on the ship had moved the gangway to the other side so although they were able to tie us up alongside the ship, we had to wait a few minutes for them to bring the gangway back to the port side.

 

Once that was in place they started allowing people off. Hallelujah we made it! We were in the first three rows up top so we didn’t have to wait long until we were making our way to the stairs to get on the gangway and off the tender. Will was in front of me and a family was to our left so I let them go ahead of me. I didn’t even make it down the stairs before the tender hit some pretty big waves and was moving around pretty bad. At one point the gangway flew up in the air and hit the top of the doorway on the ship, breaking the chains holding it in place. After it came crashing down another wave hit pushing the tender back, causing the gangway to turn completely parallel to the ship and fall off, crashing down on the deck of the tender. A third wave hit pushing the gangway back up, at which point the crew grabbed it and pulled it back onto the ship. Thankfully they had held anyone from getting on it before that happened otherwise I’m sure someone would have been pretty badly injured. I'm surprised none of the crew standing near the gangway was hurt; as it was one of the crew members on the ship fell off and ended up on the tender during all of this. They waited maybe 30 seconds to see if things calmed down but we were still moving quite a bit. They gave up and we pulled away. By now I’m sure Will realized I wasn’t behind him and was probably wondering what the hell had happened.

 

We stayed somewhat close to the ship for a few minutes and Will came out on Deck 5 to see what was going on. He was visibly shaken by the whole thing and I reassured him that I was fine. So once again they were going to reposition Enchantment before they would let us make another try. While we were sailing around I managed to get one more picture of Enchantment.

 

 

So another 30 minutes goes by before they pull us back up alongside in what I could see was much calmer water. Whatever they had done to reposition had clearly been needed. With the gangway back in place they were able to unload everyone, much to my huge relief. So while our ride to Coco Cay took about 10 minutes, the ride back was nearly 2 hours. From what I heard later the subsequent tenders didn’t have near as many issues as we did, so that last repositioning must have made all the difference.

Edited February 23, 2016 by jpm1973

[maureencruiser]

Hello Maureen. I hope you are well. Yes, you need to get back on Enchantment, so I can read another of your great reviews just like this one by JPM. Speaking of reviews, check out the NCL main page, Yorkvillian is live this week on the Escape and it is classic like always.

 

Now back to JPM's wonderful review.:)

 

Thanks for the heads up about Villain. I leave for Windstar Thursday and plan to do a review of that, since it's a little different, :D

 

 

It's a bit of an optical illusion. Half of them are. During events or shows, those turn around. But when it's just a lounge, they are this direction, so your entire party can talk to each other.

 

Thanks! :)

[jpm1973]

So there you have it, I've finally revealed the disenchanting part of this cruise. I imagine that after all that build up and waiting it's a bit of a let down, but I assure you the experience was much more frightening at the time than the retelling of it might sound.

 

After this experience Will has said it will be a long time before I can get him on another cruise (likely 2017) and never again will he go anywhere involving a tender. Can't say I blame him on that one. :)

 

That's it for tonight; I'll be back tomorrow to wrap up day 3 and finish this all up. Thanks for sticking with me!

[A&L_Ont]

Thanks for the heads up about Villain. I leave for Windstar Thursday and plan to do a review of that, since it's a little different, :D

 

Please give us a shout out prior to posting about Windstar. I left a post on your MSC Divia thread for you.

[Cabansail]

This thread is a good counter point to this thread

[A&L_Ont]

So there you have it, I've finally revealed the disenchanting part of this cruise. I imagine that after all that build up and waiting it's a bit of a let down, but I assure you the experience was much more frightening at the time than the retelling of it might sound.

 

After this experience Will has said it will be a long time before I can get him on another cruise (likely 2017) and never again will he go anywhere involving a tender. Can't say I blame him on that one. :)

 

That's it for tonight; I'll be back tomorrow to wrap up day 3 and finish this all up. Thanks for sticking with me!

 

Scott I am sure it was an experience that would not have been fun, if not for the simple fact that it last hours not minutes. Hopefully it will not detract from you and Will cruising again, just forgo the tender ports. :)

 

Your pictures are great. Other than the tender ride the two of you look like you had a great time through out the cruise.

[jpm1973]

Scott I am sure it was an experience that would not have been fun, if not for the simple fact that it last hours not minutes. Hopefully it will not detract from you and Will cruising again, just forgo the tender ports. :)

 

 

 

Your pictures are great. Other than the tender ride the two of you look like you had a great time through out the cruise.

 

 

Other than this tender ride we really did enjoy the cruise. Will has always been on the fence about cruising so this just nudged him a bit more to the "I don't want to cruise" side. I'm still all for it, though I may have to find someone else to go with until Will agrees to try it again!

[A&L_Ont]

Other than this tender ride we really did enjoy the cruise. Will has always been on the fence about cruising so this just nudged him a bit more to the "I don't want to cruise" side. I'm still all for it, though I may have to find someone else to go with until Will agrees to try it again!

 

On our second cruise I wondered a bit as I watched the steak juice gently side back and forth across my plate making me wonder if I was going to finish dinner. I didn't that night but honestly the more you sail the better you get. Hopefully Will doesn't stop cruising, and this episode fades from his memory.

 

I look forward to the last of your review.

[casinostreer]

So there you have it, I've finally revealed the disenchanting part of this cruise. I imagine that after all that build up and waiting it's a bit of a let down, but I assure you the experience was much more frightening at the time than the retelling of it might sound.

 

After this experience Will has said it will be a long time before I can get him on another cruise (likely 2017) and never again will he go anywhere involving a tender. Can't say I blame him on that one. :)

 

That's it for tonight; I'll be back tomorrow to wrap up day 3 and finish this all up. Thanks for sticking with me!

 

I'm usually skeptical when someone says that they were disenchanted with their cruise. However, as someone who is pretty terrified of DEEP water - I would probably have had a heart attack. That's a pretty major issue - and it would certainly color my opinions of tender ports as well.

 

But I am glad to hear that it wasn't a "bad service" or "inedible food" issue that made you disenchanted with the cruise. (As I am about to board Enchantment myself.)

 

Glad to hear that everyone is okay and that you still had a good time.

 

The pictures are wonderful! Thank you for them and thank you for your review!!

[Merion_Mom]

 

 

 

My hammocks! :)

[Merion_Mom]

 

 

 

 

And one of my loyal subjects.

 

(What???? You didn't know that I am known as the Queen of the Iguanas?!?!??)

 

;)

Edited February 23, 2016 by Merion_Mom

[Merion_Mom]

I want to add my compliments to others'. Scott, your pictures are EXCELLENT.

 

:)

 

We had a similar (although not quite as harrowing) experience on the Majesty back in 2009. (our really bad experience was on the Crown Princess, but I did not own a digital camera then.)

 

[Click on the picture; it's a video]

Edited February 23, 2016 by Merion_Mom

[Inaffit319]

I must admit I've been coming back to this thread often to read about the disenchanting part. It wasn't a let down at all. Sounds so scary! I'm glad you and the other passengers made it on safely :)

[Clarea]

So there you have it, I've finally revealed the disenchanting part of this cruise. I imagine that after all that build up and waiting it's a bit of a let down, but I assure you the experience was much more frightening at the time than the retelling of it might sound.

 

After this experience Will has said it will be a long time before I can get him on another cruise (likely 2017) and never again will he go anywhere involving a tender. Can't say I blame him on that one. :)

 

That's it for tonight; I'll be back tomorrow to wrap up day 3 and finish this all up. Thanks for sticking with me!

Very scary, hopefully over time Will will realize that your experience was pretty rare.

[A&L_Ont]

I want to add my compliments to others'. Scott, your pictures are EXCELLENT.

 

:)

 

We had a similar (although not quite as harrowing) experience on the Majesty back in 2009. (our really bad experience was on the Crown Princess, but I did not own a digital camera then.)

 

[Click on the picture; it's a video]

 

MM, the video says it all. I could only guess what the open water might have looked like as tenders are always on the calm side of the ship.:eek:

[poncho1973]

Yeah, that's pretty scary. I think they need to find a way to get that dock built or move to an island that they can have one. I've missed the island more times than I've made it. In fact, it took several cruises before we even got to go our first time! I thought it was a fantasy.

 

Admittedly, I was more worried that the disenchanting part was about the ship itself or the cruise itself. It makes a lot more sense that it's about tendering to Coco Cay.

 

I hope he's fine after time heals this scare.

[Mattnvick]

Have so enjoyed following along with this report. The pictures were beautiful. We just got off the ship on Friday and although I was disappointed not to make it Coco Cay I would not have enjoyed a tender ride like you experienced.

 

What I would like to know from people who seem to have missed this stop multiple times, is this a year round problem or are some months definitely more susceptible?

 

It's just I would like to do this cruise again and visit the place, so wondering if a different time of year would make the odds a little better?

[Clarea]

Have so enjoyed following along with this report. The pictures were beautiful. We just got off the ship on Friday and although I was disappointed not to make it Coco Cay I would not have enjoyed a tender ride like you experienced.

 

What I would like to know from people who seem to have missed this stop multiple times, is this a year round problem or are some months definitely more susceptible?

 

It's just I would like to do this cruise again and visit the place, so wondering if a different time of year would make the odds a little better?

Over more than two dozen attempts, we've missed Coco Cay about 20% of the time, in all parts of the year.

[poncho1973]

We've missed it about 75% of the time, in about a dozen times.

 

Since that is pretty much opposite of Bob's experience, it's looking random. However, we cruise a lot more in the winter, than in the summer.

 

It will be interesting to see more folks chime in.

[FloridaGram]

We had an interesting visit to the island in Nov of 14. We were on the first tender off the ship as I love every minute on the beach! We were having a great time and it never seemed to crowded. What I did not realize is that at some point tenders had stopped bringing people over.

 

About 2 PM we started to notice tenders were not frequent and the line to get on them to go back was quite long. It never seemed to go down so we decided we should get in the line. Come to find out conditions had deteriorated and they were having trouble getting us back. We finally got on a tender and when we left that channel and hit open seas the tender went up pretty high and we got splashed and people screamed. Then when we got to the ship same thing, they had to re-position the ship and then we were able to get on board. But it worked after the first try.

 

I never realized at the time we were in danger and never felt afraid. After we got back on-board we found out that they had stopped taking people over but of course they had to get us back. I was so happy I had been on the first tender off because private islands are the primary reason I book some cruises. I know the risks and missed Half Moon Cay in Jan. :(

 

The only way to dock at the island would be to invest A LOT of money and dredge it deeper. I think Royal may have had to do that at Labadee and Disney did it at Castaway Cay. But Disney ships do not always get into CC so docking is not always a ticket to the island but if it does get there at least you can walk off. I love that island but unfortunately it is not in my budget to go there again!

[philatiger]

Sorry to hear you were on the tender, we talked to a few people who were on it and they said it was very unnerving. We were on the tender right before you and were lucky. hope you get Will on another cruise. :)

[Clarea]

... But Disney ships do not always get into CC so docking is not always a ticket to the island...

Interesting, never knew that.

[Let'sGo!]

I read your entire review before commenting... I wanted to see what it was that really "disenchanted" you! I don't blame you at all for feeling that way.

 

My husband is a non-swimmer, so it's amazing I can get him on a cruise ship at all... the drama of having to get off a tender in those conditions would have probably put him over the edge and we would have been stuck with driving or flying (not my thing) to vacation destinations!

 

Thanks for the time you put into this -- it's been awhile since we've cruised and your photos made me anxious to do it again!

 

Ann

[jpm1973]

Once safely back on board Will and I regrouped and just collapsed in our room for a bit as the adrenaline wore off. We did have this guy waiting for us:

 

Also I neglected to post our towel animal from the previous night so here he is:

 

We had originally planned to try our luck in the slot tournament at 4 p.m. and we figured we might as well give it a go. We got cleaned up and changed and made our way down to the casino to sign up. One of the benefits for Crown & Anchor gold members is a discount on casino tournament entries. Score! So it was only $20 each instead of $25. We were slated for the second qualifying round. Will did very well and was in first place after our round, but I failed to make the top 6. One more qualifying round after ours was completed and Will still had a spot in the finals.

 

I was surprised at the turn out for this tournament, but maybe people were still stuck over on Coco Cay or en route back, as I’m sure that process was taking much longer than normal. We’ve participated in slot tournaments on Carnival and it always seems like a big draw.

 

For this tournament the first prize would have been a free cruise and a seat in the super final tournament on Allure, but only if they had enough entries. With just 9 of us playing that clearly wasn’t the case, so Will would be spinning for a cash prize assuming he finished in the top three. It was close until the end but Will ended up third, and took home $51 and a Casino Royale t-shirt. Not a bad way to make up for our harrowing tender ride.

 

After the tournament we wandered over to the photo area to check out our pictures from the night before and bought one:

 

 

After that we found a spot on Deck 6 overlooking the Centrum to listen to the music and just relax. The casino bar was having a special on Cosmopolitans tonight for $9.99 plus $5 in matchplay for blackjack or roulette or $5 in freeplay at the slots. I walked over there for a couple of those and we just sat for awhile, listening to the love songs they were playing for Valentine’s Day and people watching. They had decorated the Centrum for the occasion:

 

 

At some point I wandered out on Deck 5 to snap a picture of tonight’s sunset:

 

We had 7:30 p.m. reservations for dinner but had no trouble getting our table when we arrived at 7:15 p.m. Tonight’s menu was Pimiento, familiar to us from our cruise on Oasis. For starters Will had the shrimp cocktail and I had the antipasti; main courses were chicken marsala for Will and eggplant parmigiana for me; and dessert was the sticky bread and butter pudding for Will and tiramisu for me. Service again was quick and efficient and we enjoyed everything we ate. Overall we had no complaints about the dining room, either service or food.

[jpm1973]

After dinner we made yet one more trip to the casino, which apparently was set on winning back some of what we had walked out with the night before. We first tried our luck at roulette so we could use the two matchplay coupons I had received with my drinks. Will placed his on “odd” and I placed my bet on “1 to 18”. It came up 12 so we went 1 for 2. Better than losing them both! After that Will played the slots for a bit and I found myself back at the craps table, which again was up and down but ended more down than up. Will headed back to the room to start packing while I made one more lap around the outside decks before joining him and calling it a night.

 

 



 

 

At some point that night we woke up to feel the ship moving quite a bit, much more than we had felt at any other point in the cruise. Since we were in the back the vibrations were pretty loud too, with a nice rattle coming from our balcony door. I managed to silence that with a folded up piece of paper, but the movement and other noises continued for most of the night. I woke up some time later to no movement but lots of vibrating, which probably meant we were back docking in Port Canaveral. When I took a peek sure enough we were back, and it wasn’t even 7 a.m. yet.

 

I decided to shower and get dressed and try to grab some food at Windjammer before it got too packed. Will slept a bit more, and I grabbed him a couple muffins in case he felt like eating something. We planned to do self-assist debark and they made last call for that around 8:10 a.m. We gathered up the last of our stuff, said goodbye to our room and steward Kadek, and made our way down to Deck 5. A bit of a line once we were off the ship waiting for customs but it moved pretty quickly and we were back to the parking garage by 9 a.m.

 

Other than our experience on the tender at Coco Cay, we both enjoyed this cruise. While it wasn’t as exciting as our time on Oasis, the service was as we’ve always enjoyed and the food was good. No complaints on either of those. Our room, while smaller than the suites we’ve had in the past, ended up being perfectly fine for us. I’ve sailed in balcony cabins before but this was Will’s first, and he said he’d have no problem sailing in another.

 

Overall Enchantment is a fine ship and all the public areas seem to be very well maintained. Although technically as big or bigger than several of the ships we’ve been on, it just had a smaller feel to it. We both commented on how it seemed you always had to walk through one bar or lounge to get to another area of the ship. Which is true, since there isn’t one deck that has a long promenade walkway to take you from forward to aft. In some ways this wasn’t a bad thing, as it was very easy to navigate the ship. And I can’t say it ever felt overly crowded in any spot.

 

While I would not hesitate on sailing Enchantment again, Will has said it’s Freedom class or larger for him now. Since he doesn’t enjoy many of the aspects of cruising that appeal to me, he needs to have a larger ship with a good amount of activities to make it worth his while. And of course, no more cruises that involve tender ports.

 

I’ll be heading out solo on Carnival Fascination in April as it repositions from Jacksonville to San Juan. After that nothing else planned, though my sister and I hope to take our mom on a cruise in October to celebrate her 70th birthday.

 

Thanks for reading!